Where to find Narcan

Sunday

Feb 23, 2014 at 6:00 AMFeb 24, 2014 at 11:04 AM

C.O.P.E. (Community Outreach Prevention and Education) at 81 Pleasant St. in Brockton has been training people to use Narcan. People can call C.O.P.E. at 508-535-3405 to get more information about the training.

The drug overdose antidote Narcan has been administered 222 times since 2010 by Quincy police officers. All 222 overdose victims lived, according to Quincy Police Lt. Patrick Glynn, who heads the department’s drug control unit.

Quincy partnered with the state Department of Public Health three years ago for a pilot program for using Narcan.

The only other police department that has trained its officers to use Narcan is Stoughton.

Many first responders in fire stations have been trained to use Narcan. But Brockton firefighters and police don’t carry Narcan yet. That will change in the next 10 days for Brockton firefighters, who will be trained to carry and use Narcan, said Fire Chief Richard Francis. Police in the city will be trained at a later datet.

But after four overdoses in Taunton last weekend, as well as three suspected fatal overdoses in Brockton, many people want to know where they can get Narcan now. You can’t get it at a drugstore unless you have a prescription from your doctor.

But there are two places in Brockton which provide free training and free Narcan for those 18 years of age or older.

C.O.P.E. (Community Outreach Prevention and Education) at 81 Pleasant St. in Brockton has been training people to use Narcan. It’s a pilot program with BAMSI, (Brockton Area Multi-Service Inc.) and the state Department of Public Health. To date, 3,000 people have taken advantage of the training, which only takes 20 minutes.

“It’s safe, effective and easy to use when minutes matter,” said Heather Kennedy, the executive director at C.O.P.E. The training is free, she said, and people who take the training receive a rescue kit that includes education materials, referral information, two doses of Narcan and two small bottles to spray into nose of someone who is overdosing on heroin or opiods drugs such as morphine.

“We train people how to recognize the signs and symptoms of overdose,” Kennedy said. Making sure to call 911 and staying with a person until help arrives is important because the effects of Narcan wear off, she said.

People can call C.O.P.E. at 508-535-3405 to get more information about the training.

Another local group that provides training as well as Narcan is Learn to Cope, which has 12 chapters in the state, including one in Brockton and Quincy. Several of the chapters carry Narcan.

It’s a support group for parents and family members dealing with a loved one’s addiction to heroin, Oxycontin and other drugs.

Learn to Cope Founder Joanne Peterson knows firsthand the importance of being able to get Narcan. She has a son who is a recovering addict. But at one point she needed Narcan for her son, and didn’t have it. He survived and was able to get treatment.

Learn to Cope began its pilot Narcan program with the state’s Department of Public Health in 2011.

“I know it’s controversial but it might be the cure that keeps someone alive until they can get into treatment,” Peterson said.

For more information about the Narcan training, visit the group’s website at learn2cope.org.

The need for Narcan is not diminishing, Peterson said. The drug epidemic, she said, is worse than ever.

“I was at a funeral last Saturday from an overdose. We are still burying people and it doesn’t stop,” Peterson said.